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Gujarat govt offers sops to families with girl child

Finance minister Nitin Patel said that the scheme titled Vahelee Deekaree Yojana will provide assistance of Rs 4000 to a family that has a girl child.

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Concerned with the dip in sex ratio in the state, the Gujarat government has in a first announced a new scheme to support parents of girl child. The scheme will offer a one time assistance of Rs 4000 and Rs 6000 to upto two girl child per family. The government will also provide assistance of Rs1 lakh for higher education or marriage of the girl child when she turns 18.

Finance minister Nitin Patel said that the scheme titled Vahelee Deekaree Yojana will provide assistance of Rs 4000 to a family that has a girl child. "The first installment of Rs 4000 will be disbursed when she reaches class 1. She will then get an assistance of Rs 6,000 when she reaches class 9 and Rs 1 lakh assistance will be provided when she reaches the age of 18 which can be used either for her wedding or further education," said Patel.

The scheme however will benefit families that have an annual income of Rs 2 lakh or less. Patel said this will encourage families to educate the girl child and will also help address the problem of girls dropping out from schools and early marriage too. The state has made a provision of Rs 133 crore for the scheme which is part of the Rs 3138 crore that has been allocated for women and child development in the budget announced on Tuesday.

It should be noted that Gujarat has one of the most poor sex ratio in the country and comes second only to Haryana. Sex ratio refers to the number of females per 1000 males. As per the Niti Ayog's 2019 report- Health States Progressive India- Gujarat recorded a decline in sex ratio at birth from the base year to the reference year. The sex ratio at birth came down from 854 the base year 2013-15 to 848 for the reference year 2014-16.

The only state to perform worse than Gujarat was Haryana. It hsould be noted that as per the state government data the sex ratio for the state for the year 2018-19 is 918 per 1000 males.

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